Category: International News

Oscar winner Martin Scorsese has confirmed a script for his new movie, A Life of Jesus, is now finished. Scorsese said he plans to shoot it later this year. The film will be based on Shūsaku Endō’s book A Life of Jesus. Scorsese said the film will focus on Jesus’ core teachings in a way that explores the principles but doesn’t proselytise. ‘I’m trying to find a new way to make it more accessible and take away the negative onus of what has been associated with organised religion,’ Scorsese said.

The Church will celebrate its first World Day of Children in May 2024, Pope Francis has announced. The Church’s first children’s day will be held in Rome and the Vatican is expecting thousands of girls and boys from all over the world to travel to Rome for the event with the Pope. According to Vatican News, the event was inspired by a 9-year-old boy named Alessandro, who proposed the idea to the Pope to have an international event like World Youth Day (an international gathering for young people ages 16 to 35) for younger children.

To connect with God, Christians must disconnect from the ‘pollution of vain words and chatter’ that reach them through social media and instead seek silence in the desert, Pope Francis says. He said the desert is ‘the place of silence and essentials, where someone cannot afford to dwell on useless things, but needs to concentrate on what is indispensable in order to live.’

The Catholic aid agency, Caritas Internationalis, joined international appeals for a ceasefire in Gaza.

In a statement titled Now is the time for peace, the central confederation of Caritas aid agencies across the world called for unimpeded humanitarian access to the 2.3 million people still in Gaza, while urging Hamas to release the hostages taken from Israel on 7 October.

Pope Francis is set to speak at the inauguration of the first-ever ‘Faith Pavilion’ during the upcoming 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in the United Arab Emirates.

Pope Francis recently issued a short apostolic letter motu proprio titled ‘Ad Theologiam Promovendam’. The text introduces new statutes for the Pontifical Academy of Theology and, in so doing, captures some of the essential reforms Francis has initiated.

The United States bishops will continue to highlight the threat of abortion as a ‘preeminent priority’ in the introduction to a guide they’ll disseminate to Catholic voters ahead of the 2024 election.

Pope Francis has commended the deepening Catholic-Protestant friendship in Scotland during a recent meeting with leaders of the Church of Scotland. Historically the Church of Scotland, a Calvinist Presbyterian denomination, and the Catholic Church had a strained relationship. The leaders of both denominations stressed the importance of Christians uniting in today’s world.

The Vatican has announced that US Bishop Joseph Strickland has been removed from the leadership of his Texas diocese. Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin has been appointed as apostolic administrator until a new bishop is named.

Sr Zheng Yueqin, a Catholic nun from the Diocese of Nanjing, was given the ‘Good Person of Nanjing’ award by the local Communist Party Committee in recognition for her work with disabled children.